How rising egg prices are affecting Charlotte bakeries and restaurants

A simple egg; Once a staple breakfast food, is now a luxury grocery store purchase. It may come as a surprise — or perhaps not if you’ve visited the grocery store recently — that in the past year, egg costs have risen more than 36 percent.

Due largely to the recent outbreak of avian influenza, the rising cost of eggs is a lesson in basic supply and demand. Simply put: Fewer available eggs mean higher prices.

This isn’t the first time Charlotte restaurants or consumers have dealt with rising egg costs. In 2015, an outbreak of avian influenza in the Midwest brought egg production in the U.S. down by 10 percent, resulting in higher egg prices.

With the current rising egg costs, Charlotte bakeries and restaurants have had to reassess how they operate — from contemplating prices to using creative ways to save ingredients.

The egg-old question

The Batch Maker, a small batch bakery located in Seversville in the Wesley Heights area, is best known for its affordable cakes, indulgent brownies and cookies and melt-in-your-mouth cheesecakes.

Like most bakeries, eggs are an integral ingredient in The Batch Makers’ arsenal and are used in a majority of the bakery’s recipes. Kitchen manager Nichole Berg, who does all the ordering for the bakery, told CharlotteFive that egg costs have doubled.

Berg now pays about $111 per case of 15 dozen eggs. Previously, she paid between $60 to $70 per case.

“We have to be very mindful of our use of ingredients,” Berg said. “We don’t have a lot of room for error or play with new recipes without really considering the cost of our ingredients.”

The Batch Maker is best known for its approachability — offering indulgent riffs on classic cookies and brownies — and, notably, its affordability. The cute grandma-style, tea-shop aesthetic certainly has its draw, too.

The bakery offers budget-friendly cakes alongside its more extravagant offerings. Customers can order a simple, yet delicious,“Baby Cake,” a six-inch two-layer cake, for $35, or opt for a $100 sheet cake. For $25, you can get a single-layer cookie cake, or for $60, you can get a three-tier vanilla birthday cake.

“With the cost of eggs going up, it is hard to keep prices in a family friendly budget,” Berg said.

To increase prices or not to increase prices?

At Vicente Bistro, a “viennoiserie,” in South End that serves brioche bread, croissants, international pastries and savory, egg-laden breakfast sandwiches, husbands and owners Sam Chappelle and Yerman Carrasquero are feeling the strain of costly egg prices. They’ve decided to take a practical, long-term approach to the rising prices.

“ Every time something like this happens, we think, ‘Okay, is this temporary or is it permanent?’ If it’s temporary, then we’ll just ride through it,” Chapelle told us.

Chapelle is no stranger to the rising costs of goods. In the past, he’s also experienced an increased price in butter, a good he imports from France through food supplier International Gourmet Foods, bacon and plastic items.

A few months ago, Chapelle was paying around $48 for a case of eggs. Now, he pays $120. Though sometimes he is able to get a discounted rate from his supplier through something called a price freeze.

Chapelle won’t be raising his prices over egg rates just yet: “I think the worst thing you could do is raise prices as a knee-jerk reaction, and then have higher prices, even when the price of those things go down,” he said. Yet if the cost of eggs continues to rise, he’ll be forced to reassess. “Maybe within a few months, if eggs are still outrageously expensive, we’ll consider increasing the breakfast sandwich price specifically, but for now it’s fine,” he said.

In the meantime, the fluctuating price of goods does force a certain sense of creativity and efficiency in the Vicente bakery.

“It does make us come up with ways to use scraps and leftovers and, you know, be more efficient,” Chapelle said.

Avian flu and its effect on the rising cost of eggs

The rising cost of eggs in the U.S. is largely due to avian influenza, or “bird flu,” a viral infection that spreads among wild and domestic birds. In some cases, it can also be transmitted to cattle and even humans. The current outbreak, which was first reported in the U.S. in early 2022, has currently been reported in all 50 states.

Once avian flu is detected in a flock, the entire flock must be humanely euthanized — sometimes this means thousands of birds at once — and the farm disinfected. Since its onset, more than 149 million birds have been affected in the United States, according to the most recent update from the CDC dated January 31. A note at the top of the website reads “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”

More than 3.3 million birds have been affected by avian flu in North Carolina this month alone, making it the third-hardest-hit state behind Ohio and Missouri.

As birds — and their eggs — are systematically taken out of the supply chain, prices increase. Despite this, the demand has remained steady: People want eggs, regardless of the cost, NerdWallet reported.

Eggs on a national level

It’s not just local bakeries and restaurants who are being weighed down by egg costs: Restaurants and bakeries across the country are being forced to choose between adapting recipes or raising prices.

Georgia-based Waffle House, which serves a staggering 272 million eggs per year at its 2,100 locations, has added a temporary 50-cent surcharge on each egg sold, CNN reported on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

“As long as they are available, quality, fresh-cracked, Grade A Large eggs will remain a key ingredient in many of our customers favorite meals,” read a statement from Waffle House, reported by The Daily Beast. “While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 12:03 PM.